The partnership: Agility, adaptability, and user-centricity
As FINEEC oversees the national education evaluation spanning from early childhood education and care to higher education in Finland, it's essential their digital presence reflects their comprehensive scope. At the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre, being agile, adaptable, and equipped to cater to user needs is paramount. Naturally they needed a digital transformation partner that could meet these requirements. So the story of FINEEC & Digitalist Open Tech begins.
"Scrum work was new to us at Karvi, so Digitalist wonderfully introduced us to its secrets as part of the website renewal. It was easy to work with Digitalist, as the atmosphere was attentive to the client's wishes, but at the same time solution-oriented if a particular request was difficult to implement", Suvi Alatalo, Communications Specialist, FINEEC
The adventure: from Wordpress to Drupal
Transitioning away from the Wordpress platform, we embraced the robust, agile, and secure capabilities of the Drupal CMS. But why such a transformative leap? The answer lies in FINEEC's commitment to progress. The result? A visually captivating website that harmoniously blends functionality with aesthetics.
Here are some important steps that were taken to create new service:
Migrating from WordPress to Drupal: While the initial aspiration was to automate the content migration process, during the Discovery phase we recognized the challenges that such transition would present, both in terms of workload and budget. Instead of risking the project's budgetary constraints, the client stepped up admirably. FINEEC undertook the labor-intensive task of manual content creation, allowing for an effective content cleanup and restructuring. This hands-on approach ensured a successful migration while also eliminating outdated legacy content.
Design and Strategy: Before diving into the design, we investigated the old website's architecture with a microscope. Multiple iterations with the client ensured that the new design would serve both functional and aesthetic purposes. A deep dive into the myriad of subsites and a separate blog led to a decision to streamline all content under one domain: www.karvi.fi.
Stakeholder Involvement: To ensure that the new site resonated with its users, interviews were conducted with both the client and the broader range of stakeholders. This collaborative approach provided insights that significantly influenced the project's trajectory.
Building a Solid Foundation: Architecture planning was a collaborative effort. By working closely with FINEEC, we ensured the site's structure would meet both current and future needs.
Prioritizing Accessibility: In line with FINEEC's commitment to serve a diverse audience, a special emphasis was placed on website accessibility, ensuring all users have a seamless browsing experience.
Frontend Development with Storybook: To ensure a unified and scalable frontend design, we utilized Storybook for component development. This approach streamlined the design process and ensured consistency across the platform and supports development team to catch accessibility issues already on the development phase.
Performance Enhancement with Drupal: One of the major wins from this transition was the enhanced performance and ease of content management with Drupal.
This project wasn't just about a platform migration; it was a holistic digital transformation. FINEEC's proactive involvement and our team's technical expertise converged to create a platform poised to serve the Finnish educational community for years to come.
"Overall, the project went well: our content goals were achieved, we stayed within our financial framework, and cooperation went smoothly. The project was work-intensive, but the development was interesting from beginning to end. We learned a lot about the Drupal platform and scrum development." Virpi Pietiläinen, Communications Specialist, FINEEC
